SuperPershing

Do I need a Base Training? Because I recently bought a bike trainer.

I have been cycling for almost 7 years now. And I have been competitive since 2019 but recently, I only got few hours in my weeks because college is getting real busy. That is why I bought a smart trainer. And btw, Its been months since I have been on a bike and rode hard.

So my question is, Me having a 3 years riding hard background and haven't ridden hard in months. Should I train a base program before a specific program like crit since I haven't ride in a while or I can jump straight on to a specific program since I'm not a beginner and I have a background? Btw I don't have a coach so that is why I'm looking for answers.



Here's my setup. This bike is a beater bike, I'm really a track guy

PeteHski

Yeah I would start with 3-4 weeks of base training. If it's months since you've ridden then you will have lost much of your riding fitness in that time. Your fitness will soon come back up, but I wouldn't expect to go straight into a hard training regime.

chaadster

I dunno, but if you’re short on ride/workout time, I’d definitely do some “sweet spot” training in the mix with the low inttensity “base” stuff. It’s also simply easier to do moderate intensity, interval stuff on the stationary trainer in shorter time chuncks, and to get your endurance/base stuff with longer, on-road rides.

burnthesheep

What distance events? Endurance or other?

I ask as the answer to this would probably we wildly different for an individual pursuit, elimination, team pursuit, hour rider versus someone doing all the sprint races.

I realize they probably have base training also for the shorter races, but will default to wait for answers from the resident Bikeforums track racers. But I'll guess that track base would be including some gym time.

An aside, and personal opinion that isn't track related:
I do time trial and look to attempt track endurance events, maybe. For that, yeah, there's "base". But it isn't what folks associate typically with a pro grand tour rider putting in 20 hours of z2 a week. My longest race all year is less than an hour. Maybe even less than 50min someday in the 40k. So I don't really have a need to have a base built around being able to repeat my Z4/Z5 efforts over multiple times per day, or multiple days in "grand tours". I'm an amateur "for fun" racer. Low level racer at that. I think some amateur racers over emphasize base that's meant for "tour" riders.

SuperPershing

I'm basically a Crit guy. And my expected races are june of this year and december. And a big day on feb 2023.